(Adds further bids, details)
By Tulay Karadeniz
ANKARA, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Britain's Vodafone andTurkish firms Avea and Turkcell were thehighest bidders in tenders for Turkey's fourth-generation (4G)network, the tender commission chairman said on Wednesday.
The bandwidths to be used for the 4G network have beendivided into packages, to be divided up broadly equally betweenthe operators, the only three in Turkey.
Vodafone offered the highest bid of 390 million euros ($447million) for the A1 800Mhz bandwidth, and Avea the highest with380 million euros for the A2 package, Deniz Yanik announced inthe capital Ankara.
Turkcell's offer of 372.93 million euros was the largest forthe A3 package, with the final results of the tender processexpected later on Wednesday.
The tender was postponed in May, weeks after PresidentTayyip Erdogan urged Turkey not to "lose time" with 4G and tomove straight to 5G, for which technical standards do not yetexist.
4G and 5G refer to the latest technology standards formobile devices. Fourth-generation technology, which wentmainstream worldwide around 2010, enables users to watch videosand download big documents on their phones.
In an apparent bid to placate Erdogan, Turkish officials haddubbed the technology being auctioned as 4.5G, but subsequentlydropped the term. Wednesday's tender is a sale of mobilespectrum used all over Europe for 4G, which allows for up to 10times faster mobile broadband than 3G technology.
The three operators also each posted the highest bids insubsequent less costly tenders for higher bandwidths, Yaniksaid.
Generally, lower bandwidths offer faster data speeds butover a shorter distance and are useful for densely populatedareas, while larger bandwidths offer greater coverage but lessspeed for rural areas.
The fifth-generation technology Erdogan craves remains yearsaway from formal definition and is not expected to be ready forwidespread commercial rollouts until 2020.($1 = 0.8721 euros) (Reporting by Leila Abboud in Paris and Eric Auchard inFrankfurt, writing by Jonny Hogg; editing by Susan Thomas andEce Toksabay)
Vodafone (VOD)
